Journalism Online, the partnership of 1,300 publications, is going to start rolling out its pay-for-content network in the coming weeks, according to minonline. Founder Steve Brill says the network will not put all content behind a pay firewall – but there will be a pay threshold set as to how many pages you can view for free. Brill says this approach will not significantly hurt traffic and will still allow search engines to work with the sites:
“Regardless of the free alternatives that still will be available elsewhere, Brill says that the metered model surfaces the visitors who think your content brand is of special value and invites them to pay for it. Journalism Online will not reveal yet the names of the publishers involved in the project, although Brill says to expect the first public deployments by March, with most publishers starting with a metered approach.”
Nieman Labs notes that the 1,300 publishers are not firmly committed to the idea. “Rather, they’re signatories to a non-binding letter of intent that gives them access to some of the findings from JO’s beta test.”
While The Economist has declared 2010 “The Year of the Paywall,” there are still many doubters. Valleywag declares the whole enterprise to be “a terrible copycat idea.” And Steve Yelvington tweeted a lesson from history where a giant wall failed to keep out the invaders: the Maginot Line.